Apple wants to know more about your listening habits

Apple, it seems, has acquired UK company Semetric and its Musicmetric analytics platform, which could allow Apple to keep better track of what people listen to.

There is little doubt that Apple has plans to step up its music push following last year’s acquisition of the Beats headphone vendor and streaming music service for about US$3 billion. The acquisition of Semetric hints that Apple has larger plans for its future offerings and associated services.

Apple hasn’t confirmed the deal, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What Apple might use Semetric’s platform and know-how for remains to be seen, but Musicmetric would allow it to dig deep into user behaviour. The Musicmetric Pro offering first gives a quick snapshot of how an artist is performing online. It is then possible to drill down to keep track of downloads, demographics and see what’s happening on social networks and BitTorrent.

Musicmetric Pro can also be integrated with iTunes (so the two companies aren’t new acquaintances), Spotify, Facebook Insights and Google Analytics data for even more in-depth analytics.

Integrating Musicmetric would possibly help Apple make its own offerings more attractive to artists and labels, which depend on analytics to see how they can make the most of new albums and songs. The future success of music services won’t just depend on attracting as many users as possible, but also making them as attractive as possible for labels and artists. Having a strong analytics platform would help with that.

Apple could also use the underlying technology to help improve recommendations for users of its services.

In addition to music, Semetric’s platform can also be used to analyse the use of television, film, eBook and videogame services, which makes the company an even better fit for Apple.